Peppers are members of the Solanacea family and the genus Capsicum, which includes the species C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. cardenasii, C. chacoense, C. chinense, C. ciliatum, C. eximium, C. flexuosum, C. frutescens, C. galapagoense, C. praetermissum, C. pubescens, and C. tovarii. Peppers are cultivated and used around the world as sweet peppers, such as bell peppers; or as pungent chili peppers, jalapeño peppers, and TABASCO® peppers; or as a source of dried powders of various colors, such as paprika. Cultivated peppers can be distinguished by pungency, fruit shape, color and size (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,498,287).
While pepper plants and their fruits, commonly referred to as “peppers”, are widely grown, especially C. annuum, the plants are prone to a variety of diseases and are susceptible to any one or more of geminivirus infection, tobamovirus infection, and attack by Xanthomonas. The ability to introduce into C. annuum from other Capsicum species desirable traits, such as resistance, tolerance and immunity to disease causing agents including geminiviruses, tobamoviruses, and Xanthomonas, along with other desirable traits already present in C. annuum, is therefore advantageous. Yet the ability to crossbreed many species of pepper, and particularly the ability to cross C. annuum and C. pubescens, and obtain viable and fertile plants capable of further breeding is recognized as being limited. See Walsh B. M. and Hoot S. B., Phylogenetic Relationships of Capsicum (Solanaceae) using DNA Sequences from Two Noncoding Regions: the Chloroplast atpB-rbcl Spacer Region and Nuclear waxy Introns, Int. J. Plant Sci. 162(6) 1409-1418 (2001) at FIG. 2.
Until the methods described herein, the barrier to crossbreeding the genetically distant pepper species C. annuum and C. pubescens has effectively prevented preparing hybrid progeny for the purpose of introgressing desirable traits from C. pubescens into C. annuum. Some investigators even indicate that the progeny of C. annuum×C. pubescens crosses are completely sterile, thereby preventing the development of progeny from such plants. See e.g., Walsh B. M. and Hoot S. B. supra.